At the time of this article’s original publication, it was not entirely clear the degree to which privilege and cowardice have informed certain “leaders” in the Satanic community’s preferred methods of response to violent fascists who advocate for the murder and subjugation of all those not like them.

It is therefore necessary to offer an addendum to this piece, which calls specific attention to the lofty places of privilege from whence these persons have the gall to insist that trusting in the legal system, and meeting fascism with exaggerated stereotypes as a form of ridicule, are utterly tone-deaf. Those institutions of law, which one prominent LHP personality would like to see as the best recourse to combat fascism, tend to favor the white, straight males of our society.

Let us also extend this privilege only so far as it goes toward judicial vindication, and exempt all women from access to anything which could be defined as true justice. To prove this, I need only point to the many tens of thousands of rape-kits degrading and rotting in warehouses across this nation. My point being, white males are the only group consistently heard, or favored by the legal system.

It also seems retrograde of any leader in the LHP community to insist that hitting a bully is never the answer; that it only feeds a bully to have such attention paid to them. Only those who have never consistently suffered subjugation or oppression would tell those who have had such experiences, not to speak out… nor act out against it. The unoppressed are blessed that they can offer such flippant, throw-away solutions, when they do not truly understand what it is to be either persecuted or hunted by nearly an entire populace. If one were to approach and menace me with Nazi symbols emblazoned on homemade riot shield and club, I will not be pausing to deliver a zinger. That is the moment to fight, or to flee. And while I agree that to engage in battle with a smile upon one’s face is a powerful psychological weapon, the fact remains: it will be a brute battle, not a witty war of barbs and references to the film “Deliverence”.

Finally, portraying one’s opponents in caricature is only effective in a polite society which agrees upon lines of social conduct. When an entire movement calls for the massacre of other groups it has deemed inferior to them is met with mockery and ridicule, be not surprised when their madness escalates to violence. They rarely shrink back to the shadows in a climate which emboldens them not merely to speak hate, but to act upon it. One has angered an already dangerous beast, and a fight is guaranteed.

Among the general aspects of what constitutes most branches of Satanism at their most basic level, strength of character I would say, features prominently. Above this level, we engage in such fierce debate over what is important to our individual identities, that beyond the other agreement of our refusal to be subjugated by others, we frequently diverge… and that is a beautiful thing.

But that refusal to be yoked and suffer nonsensical, cruel, and arbitrary authority; do we wait to oppose it until it is institutionalized and accepted as the norm? Or should we not admit when we recognize the seeds which grow into its systems, and prevent them a purchase where they might take root?

As a Dame-Sister of the Ordo Sororitatis Satanicae, it is my duty to perform the sacrament we term in my Order as: The Three Great Acts. The first of these is to Witness; that is, simply to observe the conditions of this world and the players within it. And lately, I have witnessed much that I find dismaying and disappointing among some of the other Satanists out there.

In a reductionist solution to the problem of white supremacists and First Amendment rights, it seems that quite a few Satanists believe that allowing white supremacists to speak without reproach or counter-protests will reveal their ugliness to the degree that the people will simply turn away in disgust.

It may be in Topeka Kansas for instance, that few people constitute the congregation of Westboro Baptist Church. But they still receive converts, for all their ugliness. And while worship at their church may be limited, that doesn’t mean there aren’t others in town who believe some of the same, horrible things. An uncontested platform for hate, is a prime place for growth.

But of late, the strength of character from some Satanists has been lacking. They speak now of slippery slopes and a belief that counter-protest is somehow oppressive toward white supremacist and racist nationalist’s free speech. In general, what this handful of self-avowed adherents of the Left Hand Path are failing to realize, is that while one is free to speak their mind in this country, freedom such as this does not inherently mean it is also free of consequence.

On Saturday, 40,000 people descended on Boston Common to show how deeply they disagree with those who hate, and those who by their own insistence on inaction, would facilitate that hate toward a greater legacy. The perhaps few hundred who came in support of fascism were overwhelmed by the non-violent counter protesters. Hate was made ashamed of itself by the ratio that marched in opposition. No one prevented the white supremacists from speaking. The fact that they simply couldn’t hear themselves vomiting forth their usual venom… well, it is a public place. They could always adjourn to elsewhere.

Forty thousand people agreed that fascism had no place in their city or their world. Yet a number of Satanists are chatting-up the idea that actively defying fascism is somehow in itself, fascist. I’ve even seen them employing the rightwing language of the day as they tear at each other with terms like “lib-tard” and “cuck”, for every misinterpreted little sleight.

One thing I can say with certainty is that fascism should sit as antithetical to any philosophy of the Satanic. Why? Because fascism is uniform, grey, requires a compliance which demands the obliteration of individuality in favor of national identity. A loss that no Satanist would willingly suffer. It deserves condemnation for its goal of snuffing out diversity. It deserves derision for its baseless assertions of superior breeding and genetics. It requires being refuted and trashed for its junk science. This means actively resisting its positions vocally, publicly, and perpetually. For it has ever been that philosophies of oppression only flourish when those who should be dedicatedly fighting against them, instead decide that their official position, is that they have no position.

It is to them, the Order speaks:

Get out of the way. Absolute, unconditional pacifism cannot lead on this. Fence sitting is no longer possible in this world. There are those for whom condemnation is deserved; and it may be pronounced in wisdom, once thoroughly measured. But even after such judicious weighing, condemned none the less.

These tepid responses and deflections with sarcasm must end. The edge-lords are snide, but lack the conviction to disavow milquetoast policies that avoid calling attention to shameful hatred. Hate is a delinquency that tends toward the horrors of murder, slavery, and oppression… and it must be challenged, not ignored. Else it will be to the detriment of us all, if allowed to fester and seethe beneath a blanket of silent acquiescence; bursting forth with a boldness that can only be cultivated by the denials of the cowardly bystander.

I am Dame-Sister Gwendolyn, of The Ordo Sororitatis Satanicae; also called the “Lady of Gehenna”.